The Pentium Elite, Part 2: 955X versus nForce4 IE

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Gigabyte 8I955X Royal: Luxurious Overclocker

We already took a look at this motherboard a few months ago. All in all, the equipment is the same as what Foxconn offers with the 955X7AA, and in some respects goes even further. For example, the voltage transformer comes with at least four phases, but can be extended to a full eight phases by using the DPS plug-in module. This improves signal quality and reduces the load for each individual MOSFET converter. Efficiency, as experience shows, is thereby sacrificed, so energy saving is usually not possible.

Gigabyte also has WLAN capability, even if it is only via a USB dongle whose range is not as great as with the Asus solution (due to the lack of a separate antenna). On the plus side, there is the i-Lock system, which the user can use to lock and unlock his computer via a small remote control.

Overclocking remains a controversial subject. Gigabyte equipped the 8I955X Royal with all necessary functions and permitted a great deal of influence over all imaginable parameters. This is was also to be seen in memory timing, which could be changed in so many different ways that even experienced users could get confused. We have only seen something similar to this until now in DFI motherboards.

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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.